We have already dedicated ample space to last names in the world, realizing the variety of customs to name children. Today we continue with some curiosities about last names, of its use in the world and throughout history.
- In some country, such as Eritrea, the name and names of the parents are used, without surnames.
- And is that the system used in African countries is very different from the European and varies from one country to another. In other countries, the day of the week in which it is born is part of the name, as in Ivory Coast.
In Europe, with slight variations, the Roman system has been followed, basically the family name and patronymic (praenomen + nomen) to which a singularity of the person (cognomen) was added to avoid duplication. There were some modifications such as the incorporation of the affiliation and tribe or place of origin in some cases.
Therefore it was in Rome where the use of the surname arose. Previously, the knowledge of the different people was carried out only with the name and, if any, by nickname or nickname, related to some quality or characteristic associated with the person (such as profession, location or physical: "blacksmith", "blond", "del Río" if he lived by the river ...).
- But this Roman custom, in a long period of time, was limited to the nation where it originated, being the case that, in the rest of Europe, for a long time the name and nickname continued, until at the beginning of the Middle Ages began to spread.
- This system continued to be used until the modern age practically throughout Europe, for the vassals who were not part of the nobility, while the nobles maintained the Roman system of joining the family name to theirs.
- There is a belief that sharing a family name necessarily means having a common ancestor with that family name, even if it was a long time ago. But it is not so, or not at least for sharing the same last name.
- Genealogy (from the Latin genealogy, gene> from the Greek genos, race, birth, descent, + -logy> from the Greek logos, science, study) is the study and monitoring of the ancestry and descent of a person or family, and is traced by surnames in their different combinations.
- Depending on the purpose or use that you want to give to the family tree, this can only refer to male affiliation and succession, also called "bloodline or lineage", or it can refer to female affiliation and succession, also called "navel line".
- We can also trace our surnames with the Ahnentafel system, also known as the Sosa-Stradonitz system, created by Jerome de Sosa in 1676 as a method of numbering the ancestors in an ascending genealogy.
- In Spain, Catalan surnames are those that usually have fewer letters in their surnames and Basques are the ones who use more letters to designate a family name. Thus we can find a Catalan whose last name is "Pi" or "Bo" in front of a Basque named "Aguirreaurrecoechea" or "Larrabidecheparebordagarayhondo".
- Spanish surnames they are more given to the toponymic surnames that are those that come from a specific place, be it a river, town, city or region: Fraga, Cuenca, Segovia, Madrid, Gallego, Ríos ...
- As they are islands, in the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands families have been closely related to each other over the centuries. This makes it easier to find people in whom the first and second last names are repeated: "Marrero Marrero" in the Canary Islands, "Capó Capó" in the Balearic Islands ...
We hope you are all curiosities about surnames You have been of interest to know a little more about our name and where our appellants come from, and we will return to this topic with new data.
